STORYTELLING TOOLKIT

The Basics of Storytelling

This handbook will guide you in telling the stories of your community. This
handbook is full of information about the basics of storytelling. Rules, story
structure, and three important elements of a story that keep the narrative
moving. Not sure what storytelling has to do with the true history and events
your project will be based on? Read the section on narrative nonfiction to find
out. Not all nonfiction is dry and boring!
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
STORYTELLING BASICS
Nonfiction Narrative 4
Choosing a Topic 6
Storytelling Rules 8
Basic Story Structure 10
The Three C’s 12
Choosing a Medium Audio vs. Video 14
Place-Based Narrative 16

Choosing a Medium Audio

vs. Video
Nonfiction Narrative

Nonfiction narrative goes under many names, including creative

nonfiction, literary journalism, and fact-based storytelling.

Nonfiction narrative combines great research with compelling, character-

driven storytelling. Nonfiction narratives use details to create setting, character
and theme. Although they are telling true stories, narratives aim to bring the
events to life for readers, making it three-dimensional as opposed to simply
stating the facts. Other types of nonfiction might focus solely on teaching the
audience facts about a topic in a straightforward manner.

For example, a purely informational nonfiction account of a historical event like

a war, might tell you dates, give data about how many people died in a war,
and relate the facts about the key events of the battles. A narrative nonfiction
account would paint the picture of the war, talking about sights, sounds, smells,
the soldiers lives and thoughts (all gathered from careful research), and the
commanders’ personalities, interests, and world views – things that would give
the audience a fuller understanding of them as people.

Narrative nonfiction is not made up. It is fact-based. The details added to

bring the story to life are pulled from research – first-person interviews or
documents like letters. Any descriptions of the setting or events are created
using first-person accounts and an understanding of the time period based
on research. The characters are real people and their personalities are simply
brought to life by what we know about their hopes, dreams, demeanors, etc.

Basically, it’s fact-based storytelling that makes people want to keep listening,
watching, or reading.

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 STORYTELLING BASICS

The following pages cover the basic of storytelling. These basics are relevant for
nonfiction writing as much as they are for fiction writing. Though the settings,
characters, conflict, and the actual events of the story cannot be controlled by
you, the story creator, they should be told in the form of a story narrative.

This means that you need an understanding of the basics of storytelling – story
structure and elements that when combined, can create a compelling story
that not only entertains, it relays the true story of events that happened in your
town.

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Choosing a Topic

The topic of your project should be linked to the theme of the traveling
exhibition coming to your community. First, make sure you understand
the exhibition’s themes. Check MoMS website for complete details on the
exhibition content: http://www.museumonmainstreet.org. Now it’s time to
choose a topic.

1 Find your interest. What interests you about this theme? It’s important
for you to be interested in the topic. Your enthusiasm for the topic will
help you convey the story to your intended audience in an engaging way.

2 Brainstorm. Taking as much time as you need, write down the themes
in the exhibition that interest you. Which ones have the strongest
connection to your community? How do they connect to a larger national topic
or history?

3 Determine your audience. Who is your intended audience? Identifying

your audience will help narrow down which themes will work best for
that audience, determine how you should frame your story and what medium
might be best to convey the story.

4 Ensure you have the access to the elements you need. Once
you have a theme that works with your interests and audience, do a
quick preliminary search for research sources, images, interviewees, archival
video, old newspapers, and more, to ensure you will have enough content to
complete your project.

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5 Narrow your topic. Now that you have an idea of what assets are
available, make sure your topic is narrow enough to do it justice. For
instance, the topic of sports in your community is too large. Instead, narrow it
down to one sport, or even better, one team. Having a narrow focus allows you
to fully understand and convey the story of that topic.

6 Decide your medium. Should your story be told in audio format

with images or should you use video? Can you weave your narrative
with only words and sounds, or do you need b-roll footage and other moving
images? Think about your audience, your resources, and your interests as you
decide.

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Storytelling Rules

Storytelling rules are helpful guidelines to follow, not true rules. The most
important rule when telling a story based on fact – like the stories you will
create for this project – is to be as accurate as possible. But you also want your
story to be engaging and keep the audience’s interest.

The following “rules” were tweeted by former Pixar employee, Emma Coats.
We’ve narrowed them down and reworked them for the purpose of this
handbook. While keeping the backbone of true facts in your story, see if you
can convey those facts using these elements of great storytelling. Read the
original 22 rules from Emma Coats: https://www.fastcocreate.com/3018559/
pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling-visualized

1 What is interesting to the audience is more important than what is fun

to do as the creator. They can be very different.

2 What’s the essence of your story? Tell it in a sentence or two. If you

know that, you can build out from there.

3 Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously.
Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

4 Basic story structure looks like: Once upon a time ___. Every day, ___.
One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

5 Sometimes your original theme isn’t the same by the time you’re done
writing. This is okay. Now rewrite now that you know the real theme.

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7 Give your characters opinions. Nice, passive characters might seem

likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

6 Conflict and change are important. What is your character good at,
comfortable with? Do the opposite. Challenge them. How do they deal?

8 What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What
happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against them.

9 Simplify. Remove aspects of the story that don’t match your theme. You
may feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it strengethens your story.

10 Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that
your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

Still unsure? Here’s a video series from Bloop Animation with examples
from Pixar movies to bring the elements of storytelling to life: https://www.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY6PCL9ylnRSaO608L0ocvzxusr_35XfC

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Basic Story Structure

A story has three structural elements: A beginning, a middle, and an end.

Learn more about story structure and “The Three C’s” (next page) in UNESCO’s
How to Write a Documentary Script: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/
MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/programme_doc_documentary_script.pdf.

The Beginning
The beginning sets the tone and mood for the story and hints at the surprises
that lie ahead by raising the right questions in the minds of the audience.

A good beginning does these things:

• Sets up the flavor of things to come, both in story and mood.
• Establishes the message you want to communicate to the audience.
• Creates curiosity among the audience of the things to come.
• Shows change or the promise of change.
• Creates the element of consequence – an event that causes change.

The inciting incident is often a common feature used in the beginning to start
a story. It is an incident that radically upsets the balance of forces within the
story. It is a dynamic and fully developed event, not something vague. The
inciting incident is any event that swings reality in either a negative or positive
way, creating imbalance relative to the previous way.

The Middle
Many a time, a story starts off, but the middle becomes boring. A story must
move progressively forward to a final action. The events must become bigger
and better and their excitement and involvement must gradually increase as
the story moves forward. This is called progression. The movement forward
needs to be sharp and planned.

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 STORYTELLING BASICS

The key to a good middle is structure. The storyteller must ensure that
the middle of the story presents a chain of logic designed to prove its core
assertion. Each event and action must be pertinent and in keeping with the
subject and tone of the story.

The End
The end is usually a reiteration of the core assertion of the story. In many
stories, this is done by hammering home the assertion with a ‘key feature’,
which could be a anything from a phrase to a visual, or many visuals, to one
last event that sets the impression. All or many issues are hopefully, or at least
temporarily, resolved in the end of a story.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of endings in stories:

Closed End. One where all the questions raised in the story are answered and
all emotions evoked are satisfied.

Open End. One that leaves some or many questions unanswered and some
emotions unfulfilled. The questions left are answerable and the emotions
resolvable and all that has gone before has led to clear and limited alternatives
that make a certain degree of closure possible for the audience.

In non-fiction, the mood of the story must be determined by the events of real
life and cannot be controlled by the storyteller. The storyteller must judge the
mood of the ending after studying the conclusions the story has come to based
on the turn of real-life events.

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The Three C’s

Character
Characters give a human face to any story. They experience the story for the
audience. The more the audience knows about a person in the story, the closer
they feel to that person. This empathy is important because, through it, the
audience can get emotionally involved and be that much more affected by it.

Two types of characters:

Active Characters. Those that initiate the events that take place around them.
They take action and make things happen. For example, someone who starts a
campaign to change the law is an active character.

Passive Characters. Those that react to situations thrust upon them without
their choosing. Their actions are brought upon by things happening to them.
For example, a farmer whose village has seen drought for two years and
struggles to make ends meet is a passive character.

Conflict
Without conflict, there is no reason for the story to move forward. Characters
try and attain their goals in the face of opposition and obstacles. These
opposing forces could be big or small, one or many, brief or protracted and in
any shape or form. Opposition could come from other characters, organized
entities or the situation and environment surrounding the characters.

In non-fiction work, you have to study the various conflicts facing the story’s
real-life characters and portray them in the story. You must then follow the
characters as they try and overcome their ‘opponents’ in the story. Characters
might not overcome all or any of the conflict. Real life isn’t always made up of
heroes and villains, and the character may fail to achieve what he set out to do.

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Two types of conflict:

Outer Conflict. An antagonism from the world around them. This could be
from other people, objects, organizations or the environment.

Inner Conflict. Conflict inside themselves. This may include their psychology,
weaknesses, fears, dark sides, etc. Many stories have a combination of both
types because one rarely occurs with the exclusion of the other.

Change
Change is some aspect of reality becoming different in a particular way. Change
must occur in a story. In the beginning, the inciting incident introduces change
to the character’s life. In the middle, the character must face conflict and, when
they do, things change around them and possibly within them. In the end,
something must have changed from the beginning and this change lead to the
resolution. You must choose which change to include in your story based on
how meaningful the change is.

Sometimes change can reverse back to the way things were before the change
took place. This is in itself a new change even though the story goes back to a
previous state. Here, the change itself is what happens.

Two types of change:

Outer Change. The world around the character changes. This could be physical
change, change in other people, objects, situations or the environment.

Inner Change. The character changes within. This could be their opinions,
beliefs, values, personality, psychology or mental or emotional state.

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Choosing a Medium Audio vs. Video

Choosing which medium to use for your finished product could be one of
the hardest choices you will make for this project. Below are a few things to
consider while you are debating between an audio project or a video project.

Usability
Audio is one of the most easily consumed media in various environments. You
can listen to audio while doing almost any activity. You don’t have to be staring
at a screen. Watching video requires a lot more attention than audio. You need
to have access to a screen and dedicate your time soley to watching the video.

Cost
Because you need less equipment, it is less expensive to record audio than
video.

Time
You only need to be concerned with sound elements for your final project, not
visual elements, so it takes less time to record and edit the final project. When
shooting for a video project, you are dealing with more equipment and have to
worry about the visual as well as the audio elements of your project. Therefore
it takes more time to record and edit a video project.

Complexity
Recording and editing video is a more complicated than audio with color
correction, composition, video codecs, resolutions, frame rates, and more.

Data Management
Video files are large. Video projects are more challenging for data management
than audio because they require more storage space than audio files.

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Visuals
When done well, audio-only content can be dynamic and engaging, but it can’t
show users the story the way video can. Instead of spending time describing
something in order to discuss it, video allows you to simply “show and tell.”
A person, concept, place, or thing can be brought more clearly to life as the
audience can see those things. If you plan to do a lot of interviews, perhaps
video would be best as video interviews can be more engaging than sound
alone, and can convey other information like body langauge and expressions.

Flexibility
When you are recording for a video project, you are also reqcording high
quality audio. You can always use that audio to create an audio-only project,
but you can’t do the same if you are only recording audio.

Purpose of the Content

Ultimately, the biggest question to ask yourself as you plan this project, is what
is the goal of the project? Which medium will help you meet that goal?

Special Consideration
If you intend to create a mobile tour for your community, then think about the
fact that people will be walking around looking at their surroundings. You won’t
need video since the visual will be right in front of them.

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Place-Based Narrative

According to Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of Americans are

now smartphone owners. When visitors come to your town, they will likely
use their phones to navigate – finding places to stay, to eat, and things to do.
Think about turning your project into a mobile or and digital experience that
visitors and local alike can use to explore and learn about your town.

There are a variety of digital and mobile platforms out there that allow you
to locate your stories on a digital map. - Even the platforms that do not allow
location-based tagging, you can add some sort of location - whether it be an
address, city, street, lake to its description. This way you can ensure that your
listeners understand where this story is relevant, and are able to understand
on a deeper level the context of the story.

One of the oldest ways of presenting place-based narratives is by using a tour-

whether it is through a live tourguide or a recorded or written tour around a
certain area.

A tour is a group typically exsitng of 10-15 stories connected by a common

theme. Usually, a stop on a tour is between 1-3 minutes. Using the free and
open platforms discussed later in this toolkit, you can create and publish
geolocated content (content placed virtually in real life locations). The audio
and video stories or tour stops should include walking and driving directions as
well as text and images if you want your user to experience the entire collection
as a tour.

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 STORYTELLING BASICS

Things to consider when developing placed based narrative:

• Are there physical locations connected to the historic and cultural
stories you intend to create?
• Will you have more than one story or several story segments, so you
can create several connected stops?
• Will your content be an appropriate length for a walking or driving
tour?
• Will your content be in an appropriate format for a walking or driving
tour? Audio is best for a mobile tour, though you can also use videos.

If you decide to create a tour, your completed stories will be location based.
Keep those locations in mind as you plan and create your story projects. Also,
remember that people will be likely be standing when listening to your stories -
be kind to their feet and keep the stories short.

What if I only have one story?

If you only have one story, but you still want people to be able to hear it as they
explore your town, you can still create a place-based narrative, and use the
appropriate apps and maps. You are also able to create a physical installation
at the location that is relevant to your audio.
Is this not possible, and users of your stories will likely not go to the location
your content is about, you can- at least partly- recreate the environment using
images, videos etc.

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